AFGHANISTAN: Preparations for new parliament

KABUL, 22 Feb 2005 (IRIN) - A new multi-million-dollar project aims to put in place the necessary democratic foundations for an Afghan legislature to be established following parliamentary elections scheduled for early spring. Funded by France, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) will implement the two-year project designed to ensure the timely establishment of the Afghan parliament and support its functioning.

The first parliamentary elections in the country under the newly elected government of Afghan President Hamid Karzai are scheduled to be held in May. The election has already been postponed once since the autumn due to a lack of administrative preparedness and slow progress on a census of the country's population.

Support to the Establishment of the Afghan Legislature (SEAL) project will establish a secretariat to the parliament and secretariat staff to work effectively to support the new parliamentarians who will be coming from isolated Afghan rural areas with no knowledge of or previous experience in such a body.

"We recognise that establishing a parliament in Afghanistan is a new experience for everybody and creating an effective secretariat is vital before the parliament starts its work," Karen Jorgensen, UNDP senior deputy country director, told IRIN in the capital, Kabul, on Tuesday.

According to UNDP, more than 100 people will be recruited and trained to look after the work of the parliament and its members. "We are trying to support building a truly Afghan parliament that fits the culture and the objectives of the Afghan constitution," Jorgensen added.

The secretariat will start with eight Afghans who were sent to the French parliament for three weeks in December to become acquainted with how such a body works.

"In the next step, we are trying to hire 100 more people in the secretariat. They will be trained based on international standards as the basis for the establishment of the parliamentary secretariat," the UNDP official explained.

SEAL would also build the capacity of the parliamentarians who would come without any experience as to what they are expected to do. "We will also give them exposure to parliaments in other countries and help them understand what their roles as parliamentarians would be."

Jorgensen said SEAL would start with some US $2 million contributed from France and $750,000 funding from UNDP itself. "We have estimated that over the whole year we will need about 15 million dollars and we have a commitment from Germany for a further 1.5 million euros," she said, adding that donor interest in the project had proven strong.

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